Atomic Resonance Frequency Research Articles

Electromagnetically induced grating via amplitude and phase modulations in a three-level V-type atomic medium

Abstract A probe laser beam can be completely absorbed in an atomic resonance frequency region, however, if a coupling laser beam is further applied to the atom, the atomic medium can exhibit electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), i.e, the probe beam can be completely transmitted through the atomic medium. Thus, if the coupling beam is a standing wave field with nodes and antinodes, it will cause in space a periodic modulation of the transmitted spectrum of the probe field. This means that the probe field propagates through the atomic medium just as it passes through a diffraction grating which is called electromagnetically induced grating (EIG). Based on amplitude or phase modulation of transmission function, the absorption grating or the phase grating can be formed, respectively. In this work, based on controllable absorption and dispersion properties of a three-level V-type atomic system, we study the control of the absorption grating and the phase grating with respect to the intensity and the frequency of the laser fields. The absorption diffraction pattern at the two-photon resonance is obtained, while the phase diffraction pattern appears when there is a frequency shift of either the coupling frequency or the probe frequency compared to the corresponding atomic resonance frequency. By adjusting the coupling or/and probe laser frequency, the absorption grating can be converted into the phase grating and the high-order diffraction efficiency can also be improved.

Topological photonic band gaps in honeycomb atomic arrays

lattice of two-level atoms coupled by the in-plane electromagnetic field may exhibit band gaps that can be opened either by applying an external magnetic field or by breaking the symmetry between the two triangular sublattices of which the honeycomb one is a superposition. We establish the conditions of band gap opening, compute the width of the gap, and characterize its topological property by a topological index (Chern number). The topological nature of the band gap leads to inversion of the population imbalance between the two triangular sublattices for modes with frequencies near band edges. It also prohibits a transition to the trivial limit of infinitely spaced, noninteracting atoms without closing the spectral gap. Surrounding the lattice by a Fabry-Pérot cavity with small intermirror spacing d < \pi/k_0d<π/k0, where k_0k0 is the free-space wave number at the atomic resonance frequency, renders the system Hermitian by suppressing the leakage of energy out of the atomic plane without modifying its topological properties. In contrast, a larger dd allows for propagating optical modes that are built up due to reflections at the cavity mirrors and have frequencies inside the band gap of the free-standing lattice, thus closing the latter.

Optimized Unilateral Magnetic Resonance Sensor with Constant Gradient and Its Applications in Composite Insulators

In this study, an optimized unilateral magnetic resonance sensor with a three-magnet array is presented for assessing the aging of composite insulators in power grids. The sensor’s optimization involved enhancing the static magnetic field strength and the homogeneity of the RF field while maintaining a constant gradient in the direction of the vertical sensor surface and maximizing homogeneity in the horizontal direction. The center layer of the target area was positioned 4 mm from the coil’s upper surface, resulting in a magnetic field strength of 139.74 mT at the center point of the area, with a gradient of 2.318 T/m and a corresponding hydrogen atomic nuclear magnetic resonance frequency of 5.95 MHz. The magnetic field uniformity over a 10 mm × 10 mm range on the plane was 0.75%. The sensor measured 120 mm × 130.5 mm × 76 mm and weighed 7.5 kg. Employing the optimized sensor, magnetic resonance assessment experiments were conducted on composite insulator samples utilizing the CPMG (Carr–Purcell–Meiboom–Gill) pulse sequence. The T2 distribution provided visualizations of the T2 decay in insulator samples with different degrees of aging.

Evaluation of a hydrogen signal detection method using a compact NMR sensor for the measurement of ion concentrations in culture medium

AbstractIn recent years, the demand for highly nutritious and functional vegetables has been increasing in the agricultural sector. In order to cultivate highly functional vegetables, it is necessary to adjust the nutrients in the soil, such as potassium ions, to an optimal state. Therefore, there is a need for a sensor that can measure soil ion concentration in real time in the field. In this report, we aim to develop an ion concentration sensor using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). Since the sensor observes atomic specific behavior, it has the potential to measure the concentration of each ion species in soil where multiple ions exist. In this study, we aim to realize compact NMR and to establish a method for NMR measurement of water ahead of ion measurement. Using an NMR measurement system of our own design, we measured water and air. As a result, NMR signal spectra were obtained only when measuring water under resonance conditions, and resonance frequency of hydrogen atoms were successfully measured. We have established an NMR signal measurement method for measuring ion concentrations using a small NMR sensor that can be installed in the agriculture.

Optomechanical strong coupling between a single photon and a single atom

Single atoms coupled to a cavity offer unique opportunities as quantum optomechanical devices because of their small mass and strong interaction with light. A particular regime of interest in optomechanics is that of ‘single-photon strong coupling’, where motional displacements on the order of the zero-point uncertainty are sufficient to shift the cavity resonance frequency by more than its linewidth. In many cavity QED platforms, however, this is unfeasible due to the large cavity linewidth. Here, we propose an alternative route in such systems, which instead relies on the coupling of atomic motion to the much narrower cavity-dressed atomic resonance frequency. We discuss and optimize the conditions in which the scattering properties of single photons from the atom-cavity system become highly entangled with the atomic motional wave function. We also analyze the prominent observable features of this optomechanical strong coupling, which include a per-photon motional heating that is significantly larger than the single-photon recoil energy, as well as mechanically-induced oscillations in time of the second-order correlation function of the emitted light. This physics should be realizable in current experimental setups, such as trapped atoms coupled to photonic crystal cavities, and more broadly opens the door to realizing qualitatively different phenomena beyond what has been observed in optomechanical systems thus far.

Supercontinuum from an ultra-thin slab of two-level atoms ensemble

I investigate the effects of intermodal interference on the supercontinuum generated from a very thin sample of two-level system. I find that: (i) in all cases, the spectral width of the emitted radiation increases with the pump intensity to reach a saturated value; (ii) for slabs with one dominant mode [thickness equal to (m±14)λ, where m is an integer and λ is the wavelength of the atomic resonance frequency] the value of the saturation spectral width increases almost linearly with the slab thickness; and (iii) for slab thicknesses not on this lattice, the value of the spectral width is not a monotonic function of the slab thickness.

Accurate measurement of the residual field in a magnetic shield using optically pumped 133Cs atoms

Determining the residual field in a magnetic shield is essential in quantum measurement. However, it faces some problems which limit the measuring accuracy. In order to overcome the main problems for the measuring method based on magnetic resonance, a method which detects the electron paramagnetic resonance frequency of 133Cs atoms is reported. By using a rotating exciting magnetic field and choosing appropriate frequency of probe light, the influences of the Bloch-Siegert effect on the measurement of the residual field is eliminated, and by extracting the sums of the residual field and the fictitious field caused by light shifts under different pump light powers and using a second-degree polynomial fitting, the influences of light shifts on the measurement of the residual field is eliminated, thus the residual field is obtained accurately. The test results demonstrate that a high measuring accuracy of 0.01 nT can be achieved for this method.

Maximum Refractive Index of an Atomic Medium

It is interesting to observe that all optical materials with a positive refractive index have a value of index that is of order unity. Surprisingly, though, a deep understanding of the mechanisms that lead to this universal behavior seems to be lacking. Moreover, this observation is difficult to reconcile with the fact that a single, isolated atom is known to have a giant optical response, as characterized by a resonant scattering cross section that far exceeds its physical size. Here, we theoretically and numerically investigate the evolution of the optical properties of an ensemble of ideal atoms as a function of density, starting from the dilute gas limit, including the effects of multiple scattering and near-field interactions. Interestingly, despite the giant response of an isolated atom, we find that the maximum index does not indefinitely grow with increasing density, but rather reaches a limiting value $n\approx 1.7$. We propose an explanation based upon strong-disorder renormalization group theory, in which the near-field interaction combined with random atomic positions results in an inhomogeneous broadening of atomic resonance frequencies. This mechanism ensures that regardless of the physical atomic density, light at any given frequency only interacts with at most a few near-resonant atoms per cubic wavelength, thus limiting the maximum index attainable. Our work is a promising first step to understand the limits of refractive index from a bottom-up, atomic physics perspective, and also introduces renormalization group as a powerful tool to understand the generally complex problem of multiple scattering of light overall.

Chiral excitation and effective bandwidth enhancement in tilted waveguide lattices.

Light escape from an optical waveguide side-coupled to a waveguide lattice provides a photonic analogue of the spontaneous emission process of an excited two-level atom in a one-dimensional array of cavities. According to the Fermi golden rule, the decay process is prevented when the atomic resonance frequency falls in a stop band of the lattice, while time-reversal symmetry ensures that the spontaneously emitted photon has equal probability to propagate in opposite directions of the array. This scenario is drastically modified when the quantum emitter drifts along the lattice. In the waveguide optics analogue, the atomic drift is emulated by the introduction of a slight geometric tilt of the waveguide axis from the lattice axis. In this setting, light excitation in the array is chiral, i.e., light propagates in a preferred direction of the lattice, and coupling is allowed even though the waveguide is far detuned from the tight-binding lattice band.

High-resolution measurement of atomic force microscope cantilever resonance frequency

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is widely used in a wide range of applications due to its high scanning resolution and diverse scanning modes. In many applications, there is a need for accurate and precise measurement of the vibrational resonance frequency of a cantilever. These frequency shifts can be related to changes in mass of the cantilever arising from, e.g., loss of fluid due to a nanolithography operation. A common method of measuring resonance frequency examines the power spectral density of the free random motion of the cantilever, commonly known as a thermal. While the thermal is capable of reasonable measurement resolution and speed, some applications are sensitive to changes in the resonance frequency of the cantilever, which are small, rapid, or both, and the performance of the thermal does not offer sufficient resolution in frequency or in time. In this work, we describe a method based on a narrow-range frequency sweep to measure the resonance frequency of a vibrational mode of an AFM cantilever and demonstrate it by monitoring the evaporation of glycerol from a cantilever. It can be seamlessly integrated into many commercial AFMs without additional hardware modifications and adapts to cantilevers with a wide range of resonance frequencies. Furthermore, this method can rapidly detect small changes in resonance frequency (with our experiments showing a resolution of ∼0.1 Hz for cantilever resonances ranging from 70 kHz to 300 kHz) at a rate far faster than with a thermal. These attributes are particularly beneficial for techniques such as dip-pen nanolithography.

Atomic line versus lens cavity filters: a comparison of their merits

We present a comparison between lens cavity filters and atomic line filters, discussing their relative merits for applications in quantum optics. We describe the design, characterization, and stabilization procedure of a lens cavity filter, which consists of a high-reflection coated commercially available plano-convex lens, and compare it to an ultra-narrow atomic band-pass filter utilizing the D2 absorption line in atomic rubidium vapor. We find that the cavity filter peak transmission frequency and bandwidth can be chosen arbitrarily but the transmission frequency is subject to thermal drift and the cavity needs stabilization to better than a few mK, while the atomic filter is intrinsically stable and tied to an atomic resonance frequency such that it can be used in a non-laboratory environment.

Interfering pathways for photon blockade in cavity QED with one and two qubits

We theoretically study the quantum interference induced photon blockade phenomenon in atom cavity QED system, where the destructive interference between two different transition pathways prohibits the two-photon excitation. Here, we first explore the single atom cavity QED system via an atom or cavity drive. We show that the cavity-driven case will lead to the quantum interference induced photon blockade under a specific condition, but the atom driven case can't result in such interference induced photon blockade. Then, we investigate the two atoms case, and find that an additional transition pathway appears in the atom-driven case. We show that this additional transition pathway results in the quantum interference induced photon blockade only if the atomic resonant frequency is different from the cavity mode frequency. Moreover, in this case, the condition for realizing the interference induced photon blockade is independent of the system's intrinsic parameters, which can be used to generate antibunched photon source both in weak and strong coupling regimes.

Merging resonant frequencies and changing the sign of the g-factors of different atoms with frequent spin exchange

The paper discusses the high-temperature spin-exchange of a mixture of vapors of alkali metals. It is shown that in a small magnetic field, an increase in temperature can lead to a sharp decrease in the frequency of transverse relaxation and to a significant decrease in the frequency of oscillation of the angular moments of atomic sublevels. Such changes in relaxation and frequency are well known in the case of a vapor of a single alkali metal. New in the case of a mixture was the merging of the resonance frequencies of different atoms into one frequency, which is the frequency of rotation of the total angular momentum of the atoms of the mixture. It also turned out that with an increase in temperature, the sign of the g-factors of atoms changes.

Impact of microwave-field inhomogeneity in an alkali vapour cell using Ramsey double-resonance spectroscopy

We numerically and experimentally evaluate the impact of the inhomogeneity of the microwave field in the cavity used to perform double-resonance (DR) Ramsey spectroscopy in a buffer gas alkali vapour cell. The Ramsey spectrum is numerically simulated using a simple theoretical model and taking into account the field distribution in a magnetron-type microwave resonator. An experimental evaluation is performed using a DR pulsed optically pumped (POP) atomic clock. It is shown that the sensitivity to the microwave power of the DR POP clock can be reproduced from the combination of two inhomogeneities across the vapour cell: microwave field inhomogeneity and atomic ground-state resonance frequency inhomogeneity. Finally, we present the existence of an optimum operation point for which the microwave power sensitivity of our DR POP clock is reduced by two orders of magnitude. It leads into a long-term frequency stability of 1 × 10−14.

Superfluid-superradiant mixed phase of the interacting degenerate Fermi gas in an optical cavity

We investigate the ground-state properties of an attractively interactingdegenerate Fermi gas coupling with a high-finesse optical cavity. We predicta new mixed phase with both the superfluid and superradiant properties forthe intermediate fermion-fermion interaction and fermion-photon couplingstrengths. Moreover, in this mixed phase a relatively large ratio of thescaled polarization to the dimensionless mean-field gap, which is in contrastto that in the conventional superfluid regime can be obtained. We alsofigure out rich phase diagrams depending crucially on the atomic resonantfrequency (effective Zeeman field) and address briefly the experimentaldetection of our predicted quantum phases.

A high-precision and fast-sampling frequency measurement method based on FPGA carry chain for airborne optically pumped cesium magnetometer.

Improving the precision and sampling rate of the resonance frequency of cesium atoms is the key to enhancing the same factors of an airborne optically pumped cesium magnetometer (AOPCM). Aiming at the existed problems of AOPCM and characteristics of resonance signal, this paper proposes a high-precision and fast-sampling frequency measurement method based on carry chains of Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). In order to achieve a fast-sampling rate, an improved equal precision frequency measurement method is proposed to measure the standard signal and the resonance signal continuously. Besides, by using the serial full adder to connect FPGA carry chains to a delay line, the delay line is used to compensate the unsynchronized clock edge, so the counting error can be reduced, and the precision of frequency measurement can be improved greatly. Experiments show that the frequency resolution is 0.014 nT and the relative error is lower than 2 × 10-6 when the sampling rate is 500 Hz. The experimental result indicates that the proposed method improves the precision and sampling rate of resonance frequency measurement greatly. Consequently, the precision and sampling rate of AOPCM can be improved.

Field optimization method of a dual-axis atomic magnetometer based on frequency-response and dynamics

The frequency-response and dynamics of a dual-axis spin-exchange-relaxation-free (SERF) atomic magnetometer are investigated by means of transfer function analysis. The frequency-response at different bias magnetic fields is tested to demonstrate the effect of the residual magnetic field. The resonance frequency of alkali atoms and magnetic linewidth can be obtained simultaneously through our theoretical model. The coefficient of determination of the fitting results is superior to 0.995 with 95% confidence bounds. Additionally, step responses are applied to analyze the dynamics of the control system and the effect of imperfections. Finally, a noise-limited magnetic field resolution of 15 has been achieved for our dual-axis SERF atomic magnetometer through magnetic field optimization.

Spectral asymmetry of atoms in the van der Waals potential of an optical nanofiber

We measure the modification of the transmission spectra of cold $^{87}$Rb atoms in the proximity of an optical nanofiber (ONF). Van der Waals interactions between the atoms an the ONF surface decrease the resonance frequency of atoms closer to the surface. An asymmetric spectra of the atoms holds information of their spatial distribution around the ONF. We use a far-detuned laser beam coupled to the ONF to thermally excite atoms at the ONF surface. We study the change of transmission spectrum of these atoms as a function of heating laser power. A semi-classical phenomenological model for the thermal excitation of atoms in the atom-surface van der Waals bound states is in good agreement with the measurements. This result suggests that van der Waals potentials could be used to trap and probe atoms at few nanometers from a dielectric surfaces, a key tool for hybrid photonic-atomic quantum systems.

Quantum mixed phases of a two-dimensional polarized degenerate Fermi gas in an optical cavity

The coupling of ultracold fermions to a high-finesse optical cavity can result in novel many-body phenomena, and has attracted significant interests at present. Here we consider a realization of the Fermi-Dicke model with controllable parameters, based on a two-dimensional polarized degenerate Fermi gas coupled to an optical cavity. We analytically investigate the ground-state properties of such system under the mean-field approximation. We find the system can exhibit a rich phase diagram depending on the fermion-photon coupling strength and the atomic resonant frequency. Contrasting to the bosonic counterpart, a first-order quantum phase transition between the superradiant phase and the normal phase featuring two Fermi surfaces can occur for the weak atomic resonant frequency, and there is a unique mixed phase where this normal phase and the superradiant phase coexist. The experimental detection of our results is also discussed.

Energy Harvesting and Magneto-Inductive Communications With Molecular Magnets on Vibrating Graphene and Biomedical Applications in the Kilohertz to Terahertz Band

Magneto-inductive (MI) Terahertz (THz) wireless channels provide significant theoretical performances for MI communications (MIC) and wireless power transmission (WPT) in nanoscale networks. Energy harvesting (EH) and signal generation are critical for autonomous operation in challenging medium including biomedical channels. State of the art electromagnetic (EM) vibrational devices have millimeter dimensions while targeting low frequency EH without any real-time communications. In this article, graphene resonators are combined with single molecule magnets (SMMs) to realize nanoscale EH, MIC and WPT with novel modulation methods achieving simultaneous wireless information and PT (SWIPT). Unique advantages of graphene including atomic thickness, ultra-low weight, high strain and resonance frequencies in the Kilohertz to Terahertz band are combined with high and stable magnetic moments of Terbium(III) bis(phthalocyanine) SMMs. Numerical analyses provide tens of nanowatts powers and efficiencies of $10^4 \, W/m^3$ in acoustic and ultrasound frequencies comparable with vibrational EH devices while millimeter wave carrier generation is numerically analyzed. Proposed model and communication theoretical analysis present a practical framework for challenging applications in the near future by promising simple mechanical design. Applications include nanoscale biomedical tagging including human cells, sensing and communication for diagnosis and treatment, EH and modulation for autonomous nano-robotics, and magnetic particle imaging (MPI).